BoxOfficeGuru.com examines this year's major contenders with the new Oscar Spotlight column. Each Friday, editor Gitesh Pandya talks one-on-one with producers and studio executives behind some of the most acclaimed films up for recognition this season.

This week, Oscar Spotlight talks to Steven Friedlander, distribution president of Warner Independent Pictures. The distributor's impressive 2005 slate earned a total of eight Academy Award nominations for a diverse trio of notable films. George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck has scored five nods including Best Picture and Best Director while March of the Penguins and Paradise Now received nominations in the feature documentary and foreign language categories, respectively. After only a year and a half of releasing movies, the young company has become a major player among specialty distributors and is aiming for Oscars and more hit films in 2006.

Box Office Guru: How did Warner Independent Pictures first get involved with Good Night, and Good Luck?

Steven Friedlander: We got involved because we have a relationship with Section Eight, which is George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh's company. We've done films for them before and we are one of their releasing outlets. We were involved with it since the beginning.

BOG: What factors were considered when planning the October 7th opening and the subsequent expansion?

SF: We wanted to get the film out in the fall because we felt it was going to get a lot of critical response. We were also cognizant of the fact that George had another film out a few weeks later called Syriana, so we didn't want to be out right on top of that one. We wanted to have a little time in between the two. We also were the opening night film at the New York Film Festival. So we had to come out after the New York Film Festival, but before Syriana, so we had that window of opportunity. The plan was always to widen out in November, play it out as long as we could, and then re-launch the film after the (Oscar) nominations.

BOG: Is the audience seeing the film now similar to the audience when it first opened?

SF: It's similar to the first audience, but a little bit wider. But it's still an educated, upscale commercial audience that is seeing it.

BOG: A lot of Oscar nominees this year are political. Is that hard to sell?

SF: Apparently this year, people seem to be more interested in these films. I think it's because a lot of these films mirror concerns and issues that are going on right now in the political world. Of course, ours is dealing with the press and the relationship between the press and the government which is obviously a big thing now. Syriana is dealing with issues in the Middle East. So yeah, I think issue-oriented films tend to go in waves and when the populous is more involved in the issues that are discussed in the movies, then it becomes easier to market them.

BOG: After March of the Penguins was acquired at Sundance last year, what changes did Warner Independent feel were needed in order to market it to the U.S. audience?

SF: Well we changed it from French to English. And in doing so we were able to change it from the French version which was more anamorphic, to a film that was more narrative. We were able to give it more of a family-friendly spin with the new narration and by adding Morgan Freeman. We changed the music too, to make it more suitable to an American audience. Our plan was always on that film to start it out as a documentary and as an art film, and then slowly cross it over until it became a family film, and then widen it out in August when there wasn't a lot of G or PG films out there for families but there were still kids out of school.

BOG: What opportunities did you see in last summer's calendar when deciding on your opening date and roll-out pattern?

SF: We backed into the roll-out dates. We figured that if it was going to work as a family film, it would work in early August because it would be after all the big films like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and those types of films. We figured it would take a good six to eight weeks in the marketplace for audiences to know the film was out there. The measuring stick we always had was when it was "March of the Penguins" to the audience then it was a documentary about penguins. As soon as it became "The Penguin Movie" it would be a family film. So we simply watched the audience and each week we added more and more upscale commercial and then mall theaters and we watched the grosses and we spoke to the theaters to see what percentage of those people were children tickets. As we got more and more awareness in that segment, we started advertising more to a younger demographic until it became a family film. We knew that we wanted to be there as early in August as possible, which was right after the last of the commercial PG movies was out, but before the summer was over.

BOG: When Oscar nominations were announced, Penguins had grossed more at the box office than any of the five Best Picture nominees. Will other distributors use this successful formula with similar films in the future?

SF: Absolutely. That's the basis of our business. We all learn from each other's successes and we all learn from each other's failures. We try to imitate what works and we try to avoid what hasn't worked.

BOG: The film is certainly the best known nominee in the documentary category. How much of an advantage is that in the Oscar race?

SF: It doesn't really make that much of a difference because the people who vote have to see all the films. So it's not just a matter of more people saw ours instead of the others. If they haven't seen all five, then they can't vote. So it really is not a major advantage.

BOG: Paradise Now is known as the Palestinian film about suicide bombers. Does that help distinguish it from other films, or does the subject matter make it hard to promote and release.

SF: Well, it's a double-edged sword. Obviously it comes with a certain level of awareness and controversy because there are people who have been actively fighting this release because they feel that it shows suicide bombers as humanistic, and they didn't want that. It's the same argument that they were making about some of the scenes in Munich. And as such, the other side of that coin is that it does raise awareness when there are articles written about it. The bottom line is that the film is an amazing call for peace, and I think it is a very balanced and interesting film and it deserves to be seen and talked about. That's what the director wanted to do and that's how we marketed it. We bought it in Berlin (International Film Festival) because it was a good film, very well-directed, great acting, it told an important story, and it needed to be seen and people needed to discuss it. They can have diverging opinions, but I personally think that anyone who tried to boycott the film without having at least seen it themselves, is doing themselves and the film a disservice.

BOG: When searching for films at festivals and markets, how important are foreign language pictures in the overall roster for the company?

SF: I think all films are based on their own merits. Again, it's a double-edged sword because foreign language films are easy to market because there is a specific audience that will go at all times, so you have a base to work off of. What we look for is not whether it's foreign language or not, but whether it tells a story that's worth being told in any language. And then we hope we can cross it over from a foreign language audience to a secondary audience and obviously with The Passion of the Christ and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, foreign language films aren't the kiss of death as people thought they were five or six years ago. I also think that what's going with stations like CNN and ESPN where people are used to watching something on TV and seeing the crawl going on the bottom of the screen and being able to bifurcate their attention spans, I think that's making it easier for them to find subtitled films palatable.

BOG: For U.S. moviegoers, do you think foreign films are something they will become more interested in?

SF: Absolutely. Obviously this country is becoming more bilingual in terms of the Latino population. And it think people are going to find a greater acceptance of foreign language films. That concept of 'I don't want to read when I watch a movie' doesn't exist anymore.

BOG: Are there any types of films you haven't released yet that you'd like to distribute?

SF: Well, if a smart, edgy genre picture came up - this generation's Rosemary's Baby - I'd love to do that.

BOG: With eight nominations from three very different films, Warner Independent Pictures made a big statement in the last year. What does this mean for the future of the company?

SF: I think the future looks very, very bright. We have an incredibly eclectic slate coming up this year. We have foreign language films like Chen Kaige's The Promise, Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep which is in English, French, and Spanish. We have Christopher Guest's next film called For Your Consideration. We obviously have A Scanner Darkly by Richard Linklater which is animated. So we're gonna continue on the same path which is looking for smart films for grown ups, films that tell a story that tell a distinct point of view from major filmmakers.

Be sure to check back next Friday for a new installment of Oscar Spotlight.

2006 Academy Award nominations and grosses

Last Updated : February 17, 2006

Previous columns:

• Jan 20 - James Schamus, Brokeback Mountain
• Jan 27 - John Singleton, Hustle & Flow
• Feb 3 - Cathy Konrad, Walk the Line
• Feb 10 - Peter Fudakowski, Tsotsi